


Slow Learner

by Medie



Category: Captain America (2011), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-10
Updated: 2012-09-10
Packaged: 2017-11-13 23:44:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/509057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>seventy years and Steve has a small problem...but not the one he thinks</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slow Learner

Bucky's mouth is pretty much the first thing anyone notices about him. That's a problem. 

SHIELD personnel hide it better than all the others, they at least dress it up as threat assessment, but it's always the same. Whether they know they're meeting the infamous Winter Soldier or not, they take Bucky in with one, long look before focusing in on his mouth.

It isn't as though Steve blames them, exactly. He understands the temptation far better than they'll ever know. That isn't the problem. The problem is him. The problem is the way tension steals its way along his spine, working its way up the vertebrae until it can draw his shoulders together into one massive knot of tension. And it isn't as though Steve can do anything about it. He just stands there, making introductions and watching the way they stare at Bucky's mouth. Like they can already feel it, hot and slick against theirs. Like they can already taste him on their tongue, hear his moans creeping into the silence, and feel his body pressing against theirs.

That is Steve's problem. That moment kills him a little more every time it happens and there's not a damn thing he can do about it. There hasn't been for two lifetimes now.

Steve will never, _ever_ regret getting Bucky back. However deep his scars go, whatever they've done to him, Bucky is alive and _here_ and Steve will suffer a thousand years of this unsettled ache if that's the price he has to pay. Whatever the cost, for Bucky he'll pay it, but he can still wish that things were different.

*

It gets to the point that he starts avoiding social situations. At first its easy, with his prosthetic arm, Bucky isn't any more eager to go out than Steve is. They find a great place in Brooklyn, nothing fancy but room enough to breathe, and spend their time fixing it up. Its long hours on top of long hours and Steve loves every second.

But then the team interferes. Tony designs a brand new arm for Bucky, complete with synthetic skin that's practically indistinguishable from the genuine article. Natasha and Clint invite them out to dinner (well, technically its Natasha inviting Bucky, but there is no way that Clint will let them go alone and no way that he'll let Steve stay home) and it just snowballs from there.

Steve is _miserable_.

*

Tony's enjoying it.

Steve will never, ever tell him (because Tony just can't take it as the compliment it's intended to be) but he never resembles Howard more than when he's pleased with himself about something.

He has that look now, all delight and charm, and Steve misses Howard so much that it _hurts_. 

Steve hides the pain. Tony's father is a stranger to the man that Steve is mourning. He won't ask Tony to take that on.

Bucky passes by, deep in conversation with Natasha, nodding as he goes.

"Damn that man and his _mouth_ ," Tony says.

Steve's gaze snaps to him and his eyes are narrowing as he does.

That pleased smile on Tony's face widens and he gets up to go.

*

"You're an idiot, Rogers."

Steve grins, weak and without any enthusiasm. "So you keep telling me."

Bucky stands over him, grinning like Tony had earlier. "Yeah, and maybe if you listened once and a while, I wouldn't have to keep repeating myself."

That's all the warning Steve gets before Bucky bends over and kisses him.

_Oh._

"You know," he says, when Bucky lets him go, "maybe I should."

Bucky rolls his eyes. "You think?"


End file.
